Heritage Railway Issue 236

LASTEVER STEAM IN UNDERGROUND TUNNELS IN 2018

ISSUE 236

December 15, 2017 – January 11, 2018

TYSELEY £3M SHARE ISSUE FOR NEW TRAIN OPERATING COMPANY ■ ‘STAGGERING’ £43K RESPONSE TO SWANAGE T3 APPEAL

■ TOP AWARDS FOR NYMR, WENSLEYDALE, BLUEBELL AND KIRKBY STEPHEN EAST

THE FIRST ENGINE SAVED FROM BARRY SCRAPYARD ■ JEREMY HOSKING COMPANY BUYS TWO DELTICS ■ UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA RUNNING AGAIN AFTER MISHAP

OPINION

LMS 8F 2-8-0 No. 48151 heads towards Settle Junction near Eldroth with West Coast Railways’ Santa special from Carnforth to Hellifield and Blackburn on November 26.

CHRIS GEE EDITORIAL

Editor Robin Jones 01507 529305 rjones@mortons.co.uk Deputy editor Brian Sharpe bsharpe@mortons.co.uk Senior contributing writers Geoff Courtney, Cedric Johns Contributors Fred Kerr, Roger Melton Designer Tim Pipes Reprographics Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield Production editor Sarah Wilkinson Publisher Tim Hartley Editorial address Heritage Railway magazine, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ Website www.heritagerailway.co.uk

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ISSN No 1466-3560

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Will a new star be born at Swanage?

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EXT August, we will mark a half century since the end of British Railways standard gauge steam haulage. It would be easy to assume that the unswerving public passion for steam locomotives, particularly among the schoolboy trainspotters of the Fifties and Sixties, would have been quickly extinguished, as new hobbies were by necessity sought.

Not so.The public clamour for steam is now arguably greater than at any time in the past 50 years. Look at the huge crowds that Flying Scotsman and Tornado attract wherever they go, in this age of celebrity culture.

Furthermore, despite the years of austerity and fears over the impending post-Brexit economy, there seems to be more people ready than ever before to finance worthwhile heritage sector projects.

In this issue we report on, for example, the Norfolk businessman who has bought shares in BR Standard 4MT No. 76084 to keep it in the county, and the anonymous donor who paid for the Fairbourne Railway’s Russell to have a new firebox, not to mention the benefactor who has facilitated the move of the Swanage Railway’s latest acquisition, LSWR AdamsT3 4-4-0 No. 563, to the Flour Mill workshops at Bream in the Forest of Dean for an exploratory dismantling to see if it can be returned to steam nearly 75 years after withdrawal.

Here is a classic project which has not only caught the imagination of one individual sponsor but rail fans everywhere, especially those who adore all things Southern.

The Purbeck line launched a £50,000 appeal to fund the start of work on returning theT3 to steam, if the proven experts in 19th century locomotive restoration at the Flour Mill find that is feasible. And within just six weeks, nearly £43,000 had been donated, making it one of the fastest-growing appeals of its kind in the history of preservation, with cheques still coming in by the day.

Earlier this year there was controversy over whether the National Railway Museum should have‘gifted’ No. 563, a National Collection locomotive, to Swanage, and as we reported in our last issue, questions were asked about it in the House of Commons.

However, subsequent events have shown that this may well have been the right move for the locomotive, its new home and the sector itself.

If anyone can restore theT3 to running order, it will be the Flour Mill, which performed‘Mission Impossible’ repairs to the cylinder block of LSWRT9 No. 30120 to enable it to run again seven years ago, despite many saying it couldn’t be done, and look at the performances of Metropolitan Railway E class No.1 on the London Underground after it too was overhauled at Bream, and which it will reprise in July.

A cursory glance at theT3 shows it hasVictorian magnificence oozing from every bolthole. Fully restored and running in the shadow of medieval Corfe Castle, it will be a sight that even people who are not railway enthusiasts will want to come and see for themselves and ride behind – a major tourist attraction within a major tourist attraction.

If all goes well, theT3 will become a defining symbol of Purbeck heritage, and well worth every penny spent on it. Is that not better than seeing it tucked away in a corner of a museum far, far away from LSWR territory or, as has been the case in recent years, used as a novelty stage prop?

Of course, £50,000 won’t be enough to get it running under its own power again, but the door is open for sizeable grant aid functions, if of course, it can be returned to steam.

The response to the appeal to date is the icing on the cake for the Swanage Railway, which this year began running regular timetabled public services toWareham, and has been nominated for the Heritage Railway Association’s Peter Manisty Award for Excellence.

Fingers crossed, and it too will soon have its own celebrity locomotive, not only bolstering support for the line, a perfect microcosm of the Southern Railway / Region, but adding to the local economy.

Merry Christmas to all those who dip their hands in their pockets and to make projects like this happen, and keep the steel wheels of steam turning 50 years on.

Robin Jones Editor Heritagerailway.co.uk 3

CONTENTS ISSUE 236

December 15, 2017 – January 11, 2018

News

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Headline News

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Swanage T3 return to steam appeal raises £43K in just six weeks; Vintage Trains launches first publicly-owned railway company in a century to raise £3 million and bids for Train Operating Company status, and Metropolitan Railway E class No. 1 will head the last London Underground steam in the city centre tunnels in July.

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News

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Top national awards for Wensleydale, Bluebell, North Yorkshire Moors and Kirkby Stephen East; last singlechimneyed 9F on way back as boiler passes steam tests; official silence over new owner of Australian BeyerGarratt; £475K appeal for funds to restore Great Central canal bridge in Loughborough; Dartmoor Railway route could lead to new round of Beeching reversals; new trolley museum at Chasewater; back to the future at Vale of Rheidol; big engines steal limelight at Warley model show, and armed police corner terrorists at Chinnor station.

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Regulars

Subscribe Today Railwayana

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Centre

54

Main Line Itinerary

68

Platform

86

Off the Shelf

90

Up & Running

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Geoff Courtney’s regular column.

Jubilee No. 45699 Galatea on a rare visit to Halifax by Dave Rodgers.

Main Line News

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Two Deltics bought by Jeremy Hosking’s company; A4 Union of South Africa back in action after mishap; Northern Belle sold; latenight repair for Flying Scotsman and newly-red Duchess of Sutherland to run mainly in the south.

With Full Regulator

Don Benn reports on Clan Line’s November 18 ‘Wessex Explorer’.

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Steam and heritage diesel railtours.

Where your views matter most.

Latest book and DVD releases.

Guide to railways running in the festive season and early 2018.

The Month Ahead

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Features Britannia Pacific finale

Fifty years ago, the last Britannia Pacifics were concentrated at Carlisle Kingmoor, due for closure on December 31, 1967.

Once the pride of Norwich and elsewhere, the Britannias were now filthy, had been stripped of nameplate and numberplates, but were still doing a day’s work. Maurice Burns recalls the Britannias at work over the Northern Fells and the efforts of enthusiasts to see them go out with some pride as their days came to an end.

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CONTENTS: LMS Fairburn 4MT 2-6-4T No. 42073 ambles along the lower reaches of Lake Windermere on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway during a Peter van Campenhout photo charter on November 19. KARL HEATH COVER: LMS 8F 2-8-0 No. 48151 near Bentham with a West Coast Railways' Santa special from Carnforth on December 3. NEVILLE WELLINGS

RPSI blazes new trail with Whitehead Railway Museum

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The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland has been in business a long time. Hugh Dougherty visits its railway museum on the Antrim coast which has been more than 50 years in the making.

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God’s Wonderful Railway

TV dramas are not always noted for their historical accuracy, but one children’s series in the 1980s was very different in this respect. Avril Rowlands who wrote the stories, recounts the efforts made to achieve authenticity while filming on the Severn Valley Railway.

Alexander Macdonald: From scrap to Swallows and Amazons. The 43924 story It is nearly 50 years since the first steam locomotive was rescued from Barry scrapyard for preservation.

Fiona Kennaugh tells the story of how her father was instrumental in saving this locomotive which was to open the door for a further 212 steam engines to leave the famous yard.

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HEADLINE NEWS

The Swanage T3 appeal hits £43K in just six weeks!

By Robin Jones SWANAGE Railway Trust officials have been “staggered” by the overwhelming public response to their £50,000 appeal for money to return LSWR T3 4-4-0 No. 563 to steam – after nearly £43,000 was raised within just six weeks.

As of December 3, the appeal fund stood at £42,397.22 – with more money coming in by the day.

The appeal is the start of public fundraising should a restoration to full working order be possible for No. 563.

Long-term plans are to match the T3 with three historically-appropriate coaches currently on the Purbeck line, to create a heritage train.

On November 13, in a move

sponsored by an unnamed benefactor, No. 563 was taken by low-loader from the railway to Bill Parker’s Flour Mill workshops at Bream in the Forest of Dean – accomplished experts in the restoration of Victorian locomotives including LSWR T9 4-4-0 No. 30120 and the two surviving LSWR Beattie well tanks plus Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No. 1.

Fully examined

Next year the T3 will be stripped down in the workshop and fully examined to establish if restoring it to full working order is possible mechanically and financially. So far, the appeal, which has also been posted on our www. facebook.com/heritage railway page,

has exceeded all expectations in the run-up to Christmas.

As widely reported, controversy surrounded the transfer of ownership of the locomotive from the National Railway Museum to the Purbeck line on March 30, on the basis that it was wrong to give away National Collection stock.

However, the small print in the deal ruled that if the recipient at any time wishes to dispose of it, the locomotive must be offered back to the museum first of all – giving a form of “arm’s length” National Collection protection.

During a House of Commons debate on October 25, about the disposal of National Collection items, John Glen, Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,

supported the museum’s decision and spoke of the bid to restore the T3 to running order.

The day before it moved to the Flour Mill, T3 moved from its cattle dock stabling point on November 12, after spending seven months on display at Corfe Castle, where it attracted thousands more visitors to the railway and increased visitor numbers to the museum next door.

It had been arranged that a fundraising photographic charter for No. 563 would take place at short notice, at Corfe Castle on the evening of the 12th. Fears were expressed that the charter was taking place at too short notice – but Timeline Events sold the charter out in less than 48 hours!

On to its lorry

T3 No. 563 being shunted at Corfe Castle on November 12, prior to its appearance in a sell-out photographic charter and departure to Gloucestershire the next day. ANDREW PM WRIGHT

HRA needs a full-time senior executive

THE Heritage Railway Association wants to appoint a full-time senior executive to help the company handle its increasingly busy role.

The organisation is not only the voice of Britain’s heritage rail industry, but provides support across every possible aspect of heritage rail ownership, management and operation. In addition, it stages events for training, development, knowledge-sharing and entertainment.

HRA chairman Brian Simpson said: “Until now, all our work has been shared across a core group of volunteers, from answering the telephone and handling emails, to keeping tabs on subscriptions and accounts. But the workload continues to increase, and we now need a capablystaffed full-time office in order to continue to serve our members well.”

The HRA is inviting applicants from across business and industry, as well as from the heritage rail sector. The job will be home-based, anywhere in the UK. Anyone interested is asked to contact Sally Lanji of Berry Recruitment by email to Sally.Lanji@berryrecruitment.co.uk

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The following afternoon, the T3 was moved in daylight to Norden where it was split from its tender and the locomotive was loaded on to its lorry.

The tender had to remain outside for a further week due to staff sickness but was eventually shunted and now resides undercover with Maunsell U 2-6-0 No. 31625.

While the T3 is away in Gloucestershire, Swanage Railway officials will work on plans to provide it with permanent undercover storage.

If the survey of the locomotive, which was the last of the class of 20 to be withdrawn and in 1945 was set aside for preservation by the Southern Railway, shows that it can be restored, far more than £50,000 will of course be needed, and that is why the appeal will remain open. The trust will also be looking at sources of grant aid funding.

Hero who ‘saved’ the Severn Valley dies A BRITISH Rail civil engineering manager who made a snap decision to stop lifting tracks on the closed Severn Valley route, has died at the age of 83.

Phil Coutanche was a career railwayman who rose to be a senior member of the civil engineering dept of BR based at Paddington, Wolverhampton and latterly Birmingham.

Before retiring, he oversaw the replacement of the bridges south of New Street station at Proofhouse Junction and the reinstatement of Birmingham Snow Hill station.

However, he made a major contribution to the heritage sector when, in 1965, the first volunteers of the fledging Severn Valley Railway visited Bridgnorth station. They were horrified to see contractors on site, about to rip up the track.

The revivalists made a frantic telephone call to BR, and Phil answered. He asked the contractors

to stop work – and thereby ensured that the track was left in situ. Without that decision, there may have been no SVR today.

This debt was repaid in the summer of 2017 when Phil was one of three specially invited guests of the railway to lay the first bricks of the new building work at Bridgnorth.

He was also a skilled modeller and had a particular interest in the pre-Grouping era.

Phil died on November 17, aged 83, following a short illness. He leaves a wife, Michelle, three daughters and a son.

Dave Fuszard, one of the team looking after GWR 4-6-0 No. 6024 King Edward I, said: “He will be missed very much by his friends and family.

He was a gentleman of the old school and had a wonderful collection of tales to share about his railway career.”

His funeral took place at Stourbridge Crematorium on November 27.

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LSWR Adams T3 4-4-0 No. 563 arrives at the Flour Mill workshops on November 14, for exploratory work which will determine whether it can be returned to steam. BILL PARKER A statement said: “The Swanage Railway Trust takes its ownership of T3 No. 563 and the duty of care placed upon it extremely seriously and is committed to securing a sustainable future for it.

“The trust feels it has a responsibility to know No. 563’s mechanical state in order to prepare a plan for its future.

The assessment by the Flour Mill is absolutely key to this “We also feel that in sending the locomotive to the Flour Mill, we have taken immediate and necessary action to get it under cover, while providing the opportunity for its condition to be assessed so that we can decide the right way forward.

“It has been reported that No. 563 is fragile. We believe that statement is misleading: however the assessment will determine its condition. Our initial inspections tell us that like a lot of Victorian engineering it is very sturdily constructed.

“If it is decided that No. 563 is best left as it is, we will reassemble it, paint it and display it appropriately. In the short term this could be away from the railway if we don’t have appropriate covered storage or a display centre at that time.

“The fundraising for the locomotive would then be refocused on a display and education facility. It is however, a

bit premature to plan for this in detail as we believe the best way to make the locomotive available for the public to enjoy is to return No. 563 to steam.

“Whatever the outcome, we intend to make sure its future and home on the Swanage Railway is secure for generations to come.

“We are absolutely delighted to announce that our fundraising efforts so far have raised a staggering £42,397.22!

We think that demonstrates the level of interest in the locomotive after only six weeks of active fundraising.” ➜ To make a donation to the T3 fund, send a cheque – made payable to the Swanage Railway Trust – to the T3 Fund, Swanage Railway Trust, Station House Swanage Dorset BH19 1HB. Gift Aid forms for donations are available at www. swanagerailwaytrust.org/giving – with the form being available in a link marked Single Donation Forms under the Appeals banner.

To discuss a potential donation towards the T3, contact Matt McManus at matt.mcmanus@ swanagerailway.co.uk Alternatively, a Crowdfunder site has been set up with special No.563 calendars as a reward for £30 donations, which are invited at www. crowdfunder.co.uk/lswr-t3-no-563return-to-steam-appeal

Robert Stephenson 0-6-0T No. 3 Twizell climbs out of East Tanfield with the second ‘North Pole Express’ on the Tanfield Railway on November 26, banked by RSH 0-4-0ST Sir Cecil A Cochrane. HENRY ELLIOTT

NYMR completes Farwath relay in four weeks THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway permanent way team has completed its latest project – the replacement of around half a mile of track at Farwath, in the depths of Newtondale – in just four weeks, including ballasting and tamping the new track using the line’s in-house tamper.

New rail and steel sleepers have been used, with the rail continuously welded in a move that should be far

kinder on locomotive and carriage springs than jointed rails, as well as reducing maintenance requirements, with no fishplates to grease or chocks to knock in.

Despite the railway being situated next to New Bridge quarry, the ballast used, ironically, had to be brought from Redmire in the Yorkshire Dales, as the quarry’s stone is not suitable for use as ballast.

New head at La’al Ratty THE Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway has appointed a new general manager to succeed Trevor Stockton who stepped down from his position in early December.

Lifelong enthusiast and businessman Peter Brendling has been working alongside Trevor, to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities. Peter will be relocating his young family from Kendal and temporarily living in the line’s

Dalegarth Cottages. He said: “I have been a rail enthusiast since childhood and have many happy memories of holidays spent visiting various narrow gauge railways, so I am naturally excited to be given the opportunity to combine my love of the Lake District with my passion for steam.”

The railway will still be utilising Trevor’s 44 years of experience, on a parttime basis, on the operational side of the business.

Last steam in Underground tunnels to run in July

By Robin Jones STEAM haulage is to make a final return to the Underground tunnels beneath central London on July 28/29.

Metropolitan Railway E Class 0-4-4T No. 1 will haul three public round trips on the District Line between Ealing Broadway and High Street Kensington on each of the days, in between standard electric services. Each train will be assisted by Metropolitan Railway BoBo electric No. 12 Sarah Siddons.

Coaching stock will be the Bluebell Railway’s wooden-bodied Chesham set and restored Metropolitan Railway coach No. 353. To carry back-up equipment such as water supplies, a GWR Pooley van is being loaned by the Flour Mill workshops at Bream in the Forest of Dean.

No. 1’s home, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, will provide the footplate crew.

Another steam locomotive may also be hired in for the occasion. However, Dennis Howell’s WR pannier No. 9466, which has taken part in recent ‘Steam Back on the Met’ events, is too big for the tunnels, and Bill Parker’s cut-down cab GWR prairie No. 5521, which has also partnered No. 1, is currently out of ticket Each morning, the stock will be taken from Ruislip depot to Ealing Common depot, and will be reversed back to Ealing Broadway.

The weekend will be the last time that steam trains will be permitted to run through the tunnels, because of their incompatibility with new signalling systems.

However, they will be able to run

on the Metropolitan Line, probably between Wembley Park, Harrow-on-theHill, Chesham and Amersham, until the signalling on that route is upgraded in 2022. Also, No. 1’s boiler ticket will have run out by then.

Running steam trains on the Underground has been one of the heritage era’s big success stories of recent years.

It began early on the morning of Sunday, February 26, 2012, when LSWR Beattie well tank No. 30587 was brought from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway for a series of test runs through the tunnels from Lillie Bridge depot, to see if steam trains were compatible with modern systems.

The success of the test run led to the hugely-popular Metropolitan Railway 150 celebrations the following

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year, and which earned organisers London Transport Museum, London Underground and their heritage steam partners the Peter Manisty Award for Excellence.

Since then, there have been annual steam events over parts of the Underground system.

As we closed for press, tickets had not yet gone on sale and prices had not been announced.

Another special event organised by the museum, on Sunday, April 29, will see a special trip involving the two Class 20s painted in LU livery and a Class 33 haul its 4TC set from Wembley Park, Amersham and Quainton Road for the Buckingham Railway Centre. The train will then run via Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill to Marylebone and then West Ruislip.

Heritagerailway.co.uk 7

HEADLINE NEWS

Tyseley launches £3m share offer to fund new TOC

By Robin Jones WHAT is billed as the first publiclyowned British railway company to be created in a century has been launched byTyseley-based Vintage Trains as a major and ambitious step in the expansion of its VintageTrains railtour arm.

The public is being offered the chance to buy community shares – minimum subscription £500, maximum £100,000 – in the new company,VintageTrains Community Benefit Society, which aims to raise £3 million from the share offer.

The first 2000 members who subscribe to the share offer, will be enrolled in the Founders Club, and given the unique opportunity to travel behind doubleheaded double-chimney Castles in the form ofWR 4-6-0 No. 7029ClunCastle and GWR 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earlof Mount Edgcumbe. Such a tour will not be repeated before 2021 and these tickets will not be available for individual sale to the public.

VintageTrains has been running main line tours for more than three decades, but up to now it has had to use an outsideTrain Operating Company like West Coast Railways.The new company has applied to become aTOC in its own right, using the money subscribed via the share offer.

As such, not only will it have total control over its trains – it already supplies the locomotive and carriages for its tours – but will be able to act asTOC for other companies, and expand into freight haulage if required. It will also have the role of operating newly-restoredTyseley flagship ClunCastle on its eagerlyawaited first main line trips in 2018.

VintageTrains Limited will be a trading subsidiary that will be owned by the society, and will operate its steam and diesel tours.

The company and share offer were

officially launched on December 6. It is hoped that the Office of Rail and Road will grantTOC status to the new company

by April 2018.

The share prospectus states:“We will be the only publicly-owned main line railway company in Britain operating express steam trains.”

VintageTrains chairman Michael Whitehouse said:“We are recreating the time when it was a pleasure to travel on a comfortable and fast train for a wonderful day out. Better still, not only is there a dining car with excellent food and traditional Pullman service, but the trains will be hauled by express steam locomotives.

“We know we can do this because we already run express steam trains and we have a great team in place and a well thought through financial plan. So, we will use money from the share issue to create a 21st century British publiclyowned railway company, specifically to run express steam trains regularly on the main line as a leisure and tourist business.

Employment benefits

“We have a fleet of accomplished, reliable and powerful fully-maintained and restored express steam locomotives.

We have a train of comfortable carriages including luxury Pullman cars. With extra capital we shall offer to the public more comfortable, fast, restaurant express trains to interesting places: to the seaside; through the superb scenery of the Welsh Marches; to the Cotswolds, gliding past under a pennant of steam, whilst our patrons enjoy a delicious breakfast or a traditional Sunday lunch.

“We shall sustain local employment, encourage international tourism, and keep alive in immaculate working condition our beautifully-decorated steam greyhounds that effortlessly work.

“The neat part of this offer is that the money the public invests will allow

Newly-restored No. 7029 Clun Castle passes sister No. 5080 Defiant, the restoration of which is subject to a £1 million appeal. ROBIN JONES

8 Heritagerailway.co.uk

Vintage Trains chairman Michael Whitehouse will also head the new Community Benefit Society.

ROBIN JONES Right: Double Castles take centre stage on the cover of the Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society share prospectus which aims to raise £3 million. VT us to expand.The increased profits generated will all be ploughed back into the business.Those who subscribe can expect to receive interest on their shares from year six and we will provide a fund for them to withdraw their money over time.This is additional to the benefits received as a shareholder.

“It is a bold proposal to offer the public a share in preserving express steam trains for all to enjoy, rather than imprisoning them in museums.”

As a community benefit society VintageTrains CBS has a charitable asset lock, preventing members from making a capital gain by selling or closing the business for a profit.

Therefore, the society will never be able to become privately owned and taken out of community ownership.

VintageTrains CharitableTrust will be the parent of the society, having powers to appoint the majority of the society board and have a majority vote on all matters.

Community shares are withdrawable shares that cannot be sold, traded or transferred between members, unlike shares in a typical company.

The share offer opened on December 6 with a closing date of May 31, butVintage Trains CBS directors may choose to extend the period of the share offer by up to six months if they believe that by doing so they will increase the chances of reaching the maximum target of £3 million.The minimum target is £800,000.

The new company’s prospectus said that the trading subsidiary,Vintage Trains Limited, is expected to achieve a break-even position in the third year of operation (2020) and move into

positive net worth in 2023. Accordingly, it proposes to offer members noncompounding interest from 2024 at 2%.

The prospectus added:“VintageTrains and our founders are world pioneers in promoting express steam trains and have been successful in doing so for over 50 years. We have our own express steam locomotives, our own train of carriages, a skilled workshop and running depot atTyseley and a tour promotion business, but we do not have our own licence to operate on the national railway network, so we rely on others to help us out.

“We now want to take control of our own destiny and run express steam trains ourselves.

Sustainable running

“We have applied for an operating licence, and to get this we need to demonstrate that we have the people and systems in place to run a safe railway service – which we believe we do – and also that we have the financial resources to run our trains sustainably, and this is where this share offer comes in.

“Subscribing via this offer will allow us to create aTOC and to maintain our fleet of locomotives and coaches to national railway standards. By doing this we will build an exciting future, and act decisively to protect Britain’s main line railway heritage before the skills disappear forever.

“To support these core activities we will run training courses, undertake route conducting, trialling of new trains and provide spot driver hire.

“The city of Birmingham has embraced tourism in its strategic economic growth plans. Greater Birmingham is

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After the first snowfall of the season a few days earlier, BR Standard 4MT2-6-0 No. 76079 heads the delayed ‘Moorlander’ Pullman dining train from Grosmont to Pickering between Kingthorpe and New Bridge on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Sunday, December 3. DAVE RODGERS experiencing a 15% increase in tourism per annum with 10.2 million trips to Shakespeare’s England and 4.5 million visitors to Birmingham’s Christmas market each year.

“As a licensedTOC, we will be up there at the top table with all the franchise and freight operating companies, able to have our say in how the railways in Britain are run.

“Our carriages will be branded in the famous chocolate and cream livery used by both the GWR andWR.We will run Pullman, restaurant car and family event trains, initially from the city of Birmingham.We will also continue and increase the popular‘Shakespeare Express’summer steam train from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Connections

“We will work closely with West MidlandsTrains, the operator of the franchise services, which will provide connecting tickets from Midlands stations for all our trains.

“We need to satisfy the Office of Rail and Road that we have (a) the resources required to run trains reliably and safely; (b) the qualified staff we need; and (c) the working capital needed for a seasonal business.

“The primary use of the £800,000 is to provide cashflow support to the subsidiaryTrain Operating Company that will incur costs and liabilities from February 2018.This company will start to receive trading income later, when

we hold the licence to operate and start running services.

“Whilst £800,000 is enough to get us started so we can run trains next year, the real target we want to reach is £3 million, and the additional £2.2 million will be spent on capital expenditure.”

Passenger facilities

The money from the share offer will also be used to improve coaching stock.

A new kitchen car to help serve more Pullman and first class meals to a much higher standard will be created.

Carriages will be upgraded to offer increased disabled facilities, and equipped with better safety and environmental systems over and above the current requirements. An on-train café bar and shop will also be created.

Other projects may include the creation of an observation and bar car and more Pullman cars. Further improvements to theTyseley depot include creating a training, education and heritage centre.

Certain stations on the‘Shakespeare Express’route may be adopted for community benefit.

The newTOC will, said the prospectus, get off to a“gentle start”in 2018 and build up its activities from there. Next year it will run the existing‘Shakespeare Express’programme, a small number of charter trains and a programme of local Christmas trains, it said.

“2019 will see a return to our current level of operations with additional charter trains, and 2020 will see a further increase

in the number of trains to a level we perceive to be comfortably sustainable through to 2023 and beyond,” it said.

“In parallel with this, additional nonpassenger services will be offered to the railway industry, best utilising the additional staff resources theTOC will take on. Most of our passenger services run at weekends, so significant weekday resources will be available, allowing a small new operator to take on tasks deemed non-core by the bigger players focused on their volume operations, such as testing new trains before they are commissioned and can carry passengers.

“These activities will build at a sensible and manageable rate between 2018 and 2023.With developments planned for the main line railway network over coming years, we believe that ourTrain Operating Company will have an ample supply of profitable work.”

Shakespeare’s leading role

If the ORR grants theTOC licence in April, the first trains to be run under it will be next year’s‘Shakespeare Express’ programme.

There will be 33 passenger charter trains run in 2018, 58 in 2019 and 82 trains in 2020.

The carriage renovation plan will start immediately and finish by February 2020.

Members will be able to elect up to three members of the society’s board, the first elections coming at its first annual general meeting in autumn 2019.

Write to us: Heritage Railway, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ.

The initial society board will be chaired

by MichaelWhitehouse, and will include former Chiltern Railways chairman Adrian Shooter, who is currently chairman of Vivarail which is developing modern trains, chartered accountant Michael Gilbert, a director ofVintageTrains CharitableTrust andTyseley Locomotive Works for more than 25 years, plus retired chartered architect and consultant Robin Coombes, who recently chaired the governance review of theWest Somerset Railway Association.

Adrian will chair the board ofVintage Trains Limited, and an as yet-unnamed “very senior manager with experience in British Rail, Network Rail and aTOC”will become its managing director.

Jim Kirkman, secretary and treasurer of the VintageTrains CharitableTrust, will be company secretary, while Ben Mason, a familiar face atTyseley for several years, will be the business and catering manager. ➜ Shares in Vintage Trains BC can be bought at www.vintagetrains.co.uk/ Shares where you can use a credit or debit card to subscribe.

You can also subscribe by sending an electronic transfer or cheque drawn from any UK bank or building society with an application form available from the website.

Should the ORR not grant a TOC licence, all funds will be returned to members less any operating expenditure that had been incurred up to that date.

Heritagerailway.co.uk 9

NEWS

Top awards for Wensleydale, Bluebell, North Yorkshire Moors and Kirkby Stephen East

By Robin Jones ONE of the smallest stations in the heritage sector has just scooped a second major award.

Earlier this year, the Wensleydale Railway’s Scruton station, which reopened only three years ago following a £180,000 restoration, was named as joint winner of the British Museum Marsh Trust Volunteers in Learning Award, for the heritage education programme at its tiny railway museum.

Having secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2015, local volunteers worked to research and redisplay the station as it was in 1916, creating an authentic First World War period setting for a programme of curriculum-linked school visits.

The station has now carried off the London Underground Operational Enhancement Award in the National Railway Heritage Awards, held at the Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London’s Threadneedle Street on December 6.

The latest award was made for the restoration of the station’s NER platform extension.

The Stainmore Railway’s World of Water project to provide a functioning

The award-winning water tank at Kirkby Stephen East station. NRHA

Changing tokens at New Bridge signalbox on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. NRHA

The superbly restored canopy at Wemyss Bay. BRIAN SHARPE NER water tower, water crane and an educational area at Kirkby Stephen East station took the Contractors Restoration Award. The educational exhibits explain why engines need water and explains the technologies that delivered it.

The Siemens Signalling Award was shared between the Bluebell Railway and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

The Bluebell won the award for the restoration of Horsted Keynes signalbox, the last of the original signalboxes on the line, which was emptied of all equipment when BR closed the line and which has been painstakingly re-equipped to enable operation of the Ardingly branch. The NYMR shared the award for its modern token system between Goathland and New Bridge.

The Great Western Railway Craft Skills Award went to the King’s Head in Huddersfield station, where owner Bruce Travis spent around £200,000 on restoring the real ale pub to

its 19th century glory.

The Railway Heritage Trust Conservation Award went to Network Rail for its restoration of Grade II listed Pantyffynnon station in Carmarthenshire.

Renovated with Carmarthenshire County Council support, Network Rail has recently completed extensive renovation works giving the station a new lease of life, with significant grant funding from the Railway Heritage Trust.

Network Rail asset engineer Darren McKenna said: “The station building is a rare example of a ‘Brunel chalet’ which was a standard design by the famous railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.”

The Stagecoach Volunteers Award went to the Yarrows Heritage Trust for its restoration of Thrumster station on the Wick & Lybster Light Railway in Caithness, which was closed on April 3, 1944, as a wartime economy measure.

British Railways continued to use the

Anonymous donor funds Fairbourne Railway’s new Russell firebox THE Fairbourne Railway’s £12,000 appeal to provide its 2-6-4T Russell with a new firebox has successfully reached its target with almost 12 months to go before work is due to start, thanks to two large donations from a single anonymous individual.

A very favourable quote has been received from one potential contractor but with plenty of time to make a decision others may be evaluated.

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Recent work on the chassis has seen the locomotive, a 15in copy of its famous Welsh Highland Railway counterpart, transformed from a maintenance-hungry machine to a star performer, with the engineering plastic Vesconite being used extensively for bearing surfaces in the axleboxes and motion.

This material is half the price of the bronze previously used for the bearings in question, which wore

away in a matter of weeks.

By contrast, when the Vesconite bearings were examined at the end of a season that had seen the locomotive used extensively there was found to be minimal wear, such that it could well see another two seasons of use before requiring further attention. In the light of these findings the next loco through the workshops, 2-6-2T Yeo, is expected to see similar widespread

application of Vesconite to its bearing surfaces.

Vesconite is a self-lubricating thermoplastic developed in South Africa for use in gold-mining equipment and is claimed to give up to 10 times the life of bronze bushes. It has very good dimensional stability, and displays negligible creep under high load. Unlike many synthetic alternatives, it retains its strength under wet conditions.

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For long neglected, Scruton station on the Wensleydale Railway has now won two national awards in a year. NRHA

Restored Thrumster station, which last saw trains in 1944, looking northwards towards Wick. NRHA station as a goods office for collections by road, and it also served as a post office. The building was acquired by the trust in 2002 and has now been completely renovated, with the goods section used as an exhibition space.

The Taylor Woodrow Partnership Award was won by the Station House Community Connection for the £300,000 restoration and refurbishment of the disused Victorian Wickham Market station house in Campsea Ashe as a community facility with meeting rooms. The restoration work included a new canopy over the platform and the reinstatement of 30 decorative lions along new traditional cast-iron guttering, once a feature of all the station houses on the line between Melton and Halesworth.

The MTR Crossrail Award for Urban Heritage went to Greater Anglia for Cambridge station for the cabling and college roundels restoration, while the

Supporters Award went to Euston Tap for the heritage windows at Euston East and West Lodge which are now pubs.

The award for best overall entry in this year’s awards went to Network Rail Scotland for the regeneration of the station canopy at Wemyss Bay, the terminus of the Inverclyde Line, 26 miles west of Glasgow Central.

The station was designed by James Miller in 1903 for the Caledonian Railway and is remarkable in its use of glass and steel curves. While noted for its architectural qualities – it one of Scotland’s finest railway buildings and Category A listed – it was for a long time neglected.

However, a major refurbishment scheme carried out jointly by Network Rail, Inverclyde Council and the Scottish Government from June 2014 to the spring of 2016 saw its superb buildings and adjacent ferry terminal fully restored.

IN BRIEF ➜ SEVERN Valley Railway-based Port Talbot Railway/GWR 0-6-0ST No. 813 is to visit both the Kent and East Sussex and Bluebell railways. For nine days, No. 813 will assist the KESR’s home fleet to operate Santa specials, and on May 19-20, will be a guest for the Bluebell’s Branch Line Weekend. ➜ KEIGHLEY & Worth Valley Railway-based 1899-built Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2T No. 85 has been loaned to neighbour the Embsay

& Bolton Abbey to assist its home fleet over the Christmas period, returning home at the end of the year. ➜ STEPHEN Middleton’s recentlyrestored Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1208 of 1916 Illingworth, which ran on Yorkshire’s Nidd Valley Light Railway during its working life, will visit the MidSuffolk Light Railway for three weekends in June, including the line’s gala.

New B17 No. 61662 Manchester United at the Mizens Railway. NBLPG

Two new B17s make progress NEW-BUILD B17 ‘Footballer’ 4-6-0 No. 61662 Manchester United, currently under construction at the Mizens Railway near Woking, by a group from within the NBL Preservation Group, is taking shape.

Recent work parties have focused on making the front end of the locomotive look as presentable as possible in readiness for the venue’s Christmas season.

Recent work has focused on attaching the running board either side of the smokebox. The footplate framing has been extended along the base of the smokebox and new steelwork is on order to form the left side front end footplate section. The left side front footplate was securely fitted into place in November

and steel for the right side is now on order. The group currently has a tender top and frame, cab, smokebox and frame (mostly uncut).

Another new-build B17 project being undertaken by the unconnected B17 Steam Locomotive Trust sees the construction of No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham. There is now enough money to buy the first driving wheel at a cost of £10,000, after 31 donations have been made. It will use the pattern from A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado’s wheels.

The frames have been erected at the Llangollen Railway, while other parts such as the dragbox have been manufactured and delivered to Llangollen.

NYMR winter maintenance promises more steam AFTER a summer season of very reliable running, when diesel for steam substitutions fell from 26% in 2016 to 5% in 2017 despite the line having only four steam engines available for much of the season, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway ‘s programme of winter locomotive maintenance has gone very well.

Most of the scheduled mechanical work was completed before the start of Santa services, despite some high mileages run in 2017.

Highest mileage

BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No. 76079 was the highest-mileage engine in 2017, covering almost 17,000 miles. Its wheels will be removed and sent away for tyre turning in the new year but the locomotive is otherwise in good fettle.

Another locomotive receiving attention is B1 4-6-0 No. 61264, which needs remedial work to its rear axleboxes before leaving the line for a short period around April, for railtour duties and a visit to the Severn Valley Railway’ spring gala.

BR Standard 2-6-4T No. 80136 has received new piston and valve rings together with attention to its valve gear and was run in by running up and down Grosmont headshunt in snowy conditions that precluded venturing out on to the main line.

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Of the engines under overhaul, LMS ‘Black Five’ No. 5428 is awaiting delivery of new boiler tubes and is expected to have its boiler fitted early in the new year, when the opportunity will be taken to lift that from BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No. 75029, which has most of the material needing replacement cut away before the lift. In addition, NYMR shed staff have been undertaking contract repairs on the chassis of S15 No. 825, with all the wheelsets having been dropped for examination of the axleboxes and repairs as necessary, before being replaced.

New Year work

After Christmas, attention will focus on winterising the engines and carrying out whatever routine running boiler repairs are needed ahead of their annual insurance company inspections, with work also expected to progress on BR Standard 4MT No. 75029’s boiler and Bulleid West Country light Pacific No. 34101 Hartland’s boiler due to return from the South Devon Railway where it has been having a new firebox fabricated and fitted.

There will still be much work required on its return, with all the stays to be made and fitted before it can be returned to the frames, which are more or less finished and awaiting its return for final assembly to start.

Heritagerailway.co.uk 11

NEWS IN BRIEF ➜ PEPPERCORN A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado will visit the Midland Railway-Butterley in the spring, and after arriving there in mid-April, will run special services on April 21-22. ➜ WESTON-super-Mare’s 1884-built station has been awarded Grade II listed status by Historic England, joining the resort’s other buildings such as the town hall, the Grand Pier and the Royal Hotel. ➜ LMS ‘Crab’ 2-6-0 No. 13065 from the East Lancashire Railway and LNER B12 4-6-0 No. 8572 from the North Norfolk Railway will visit the Great Central Railway for its January 26-28 winter gala. ➜ SWANAGE Railway-based M7 0-4-4T No. 30053 has now been withdrawn with the boiler largely stripped down and ready for lifting.

Its owners plan to send the boiler away for contract overhaul but further details of its overhaul are being formulated. ➜ DARJEELING Himalayan Railway Manchester-built Sharp Stewart B 0-4-0ST No. 794B is to make a comeback on the Matheran Hill Railway where it made its debut in 1917. India’s Central Railway has brought it in to run special trips beginning in March.

Single-chimney 9F boiler passes Crewe steam tests

By Robin Jones BR STANDARD 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 – the only surviving single-chimney example – has passed its steam tests.

The tests were undertaken at LNWR Heritage in Crewe on November 23, 51 years since the boiler last held pressure, and the locomotive, which last ran in December 1966 before being sent to Dai Woodham’s scrapyard at Barry, is now on the final leg of its restoration. On November 15 it had passed its hydraulic examination.

Built at Crewe, it entered traffic on May 24, 1957 and was first allocated to Saltley, from where it worked heavy freight to Gloucester, Nuneaton and Derby, and on the Water Orton-Glasgow Class C freight, which it worked as far as Carlisle via Sheffield and Skipton.

However, it spent most of its working life at Wellingborough, to which it was transferred in December 1957.

There, along with other 9Fs it was used on Toton to Brent coal trains, and also headed the weekday service to Rotherwood near Sheffield. No. 92134 also worked general traffic over

Henry Ellison heats NYMR stock ANDREW Barclay 0-4-0ST Henry Ellison, hired from the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway for use as a mobile steam heating plant at Pickering, has been test steamed and found to be up to the job of heating the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s Santa special rake of coaches.

It is doing the same job as an industrial steam generator

previously hired in, but at half the cost, while at the same freeing up the Weltrol wagon previously used to carry the steam generator for permanent way use.

Although the locomotive has not been hired in to work trains, rumours on the NYMR suggest that there is a good possibility it may work a special train of some sort to Levisham.

The boiler of 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 passed its steam test on November 23. 92134 the Midland Main Line, including long-distance work from Carlisle to St Pancras.

It was allocated to Leicester Midland in February 1964, and in September that year went to Eastleigh Works for its last major overhaul. Back at Leicester, it headed goods working all over the Midlands and to south Yorkshire and was transferred to Birkenhead in April 1965 from where it was withdrawn.

A total of 251 9F 2-10-0s were built of which nine have survived into preservation with No. 92134 being the oldest-surviving class member. It

worked for BR for only nine years and six months, and arrived at the scrapyard in June 1967. No. 92134 was rescued from Barry in December 1980, taking five days to be taken to its first preservation base, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, at a speed of 12mph. It became the 116th locomotive out of 213 to leave Barry for heritage purposes, after having been there for 13 years and six months.

In early 1984, it was taken to Shipyard Services Ltd’s workshop at Brightlingsea in Essex. Bought by Churnet Valley Railway director Howard Self and his wife Heather, most of its restoration was carried out at Crewe Heritage Centre.

However, in February 2016, the chassis was moved to the East Lancashire Railway, where the restoration will be completed once the boiler arrives from Crewe. By early 2017 the bottom half of the locomotive had been restored.

It is intended that once complete and having undergone running-in tests, No. 92134 will become part of the ELR steam fleet for the foreseeable future.

It will use the tender from the Midland Railway Trust’s BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73129.

York date for Peake’s Soyuz FOLLOWING its visits to Science Museum in London, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and Locomotion in Shildon, the spacecraft that transported British astronaut Tim Peake to and from the International Space Station will make its way to York and will land at the National Railway Museum on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.

A landmark partnership between Samsung and the Science Museum Group to create a national tour of Tim Peake’s spacecraft means the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule, complete with equipped interior and re-entry char marks on its outer body, will be

on public display along with its 25m diameter parachute for two months at the York museum.

Visitors can book an event that includes an exclusive viewing of the capsule, as well as an opportunity to learn about the spacecraft from one of the museum’s explainers. They can also experience the Space Descent VR virtual reality experience, narrated by Tim Peake himself, which places the visitor inside the Soyuz TMA-19M to witness first-hand the incredible 250 mile journey back to earth.

The spaceship will visit the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester in March.

Supporter’s loan allows Fairbourne Railway to relay Penrhyn station track

EX-BARRY scrapyard hulk GWR 2-8-0 No. 2859 left Llangollen on November 11 when Reid Transport took it to its new restoration base at Congleton. The locomotive had spent three decades in the sidings before being sold, as reported in our last issue, but Llangollen Railway officials hope to see it back once its new owner has restored it. GEORGE JONES

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FOR the first time in many years the Fairbourne Railway has been in a position to invest in the purchase of a large quantity of new S10 rail, rather than good second-hand material.

The purchase has been made possible by a generous loan from a supporter, with the railway opening an appeal to eventually repay it – donations should be sent to the Fairbourne Railway, Beach Road, Gwynedd, LL38 2EX. The new rail is initially being used to relay the station at Porth Penrhyn, which is being simplified in the process down

to a run-round loop and a short layover siding for use on events that require an engine change.

Sufficient rail has been purchased to allow a large section of track between the passing loop and Porth Penrhyn in the winter of 2018-19, at which point almost three quarters of the railway will have been renewed in recent years.

All the old track has been stripped out at Porth Penrhyn and work has started on laying the new track with the aim of having it usable, if not finished, in time for Santa special services.

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